Cape Argus

Eskom’s loyalty to nation questionab­le

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GOOD people do not need laws to tell them to behave, bad people will find a way around the laws.

Some of our leading political and business elites have a serious disrespect for ordinary people.

Eskom sells electricit­y to Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe while locals suffer load shedding. We must ask why Eskom sells electricit­y to other nations when locals have insufficie­nt electricit­y? The answer is simple. Eskom is not loyal to our nation as it serves a political and business minority. This elite use Eskom to profit and do not care if a business that feeds a few families will survive.

Those who control Eskom do not care if we have electricit­y to study or eat or clean ourselves.

For a year, we were in lockdown and our economy stalled as joblessnes­s increased to 50%.

Eskom has the crude audacity to increase electricit­y costs by 20% and load-shed when the lockdown is relaxed. At the Commission on State Capture, former Eskom leader Brian Molefe accused the president of placing self-interest above our national interest. It is evident that we pay more for less electricit­y.

Paying more will not help load shedding since those who profit at Eskom do not care about the service.

Their greed is driven by profit and not solving the problem, which existed for a decade.

So, what is the solution to load shedding and the increasing cost on electricit­y? We have a few options.

We could fire all the unusable people and try to stop the corruption, at Eskom. This is unlikely. We could federalise the grid and sever ties with a national Eskom HQ and reform the regional grids.

We could switch to a mixture of oil, gas, wind and solar etc.

We could also relook at modular nuclear energy or a mixture of whatever works.

Essentiall­y, energy must become a regional political concern.

This will be a costly fight as the wealthy are already somewhat off the grid. They have battery facilities installed at their properties etc.

Thus, they are not impacted that heavily by Eskom and may not need change. Those who profit at Eskom will use their political links to prevent progress. A simpler solution submits we change our national political leadership and remove the parasites at Eskom. Change is vital, as a parasite by its nature must be physically removed at all cost for the host to survive. If not, parasites ultimately kill the host and move to another host. We have limited time.

CLLR YAGYAH ADAMS | Cape Muslim

Congress

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